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Anthea Lewis on Touch The Floor and reuniting with Dance Umbrella
Dance Umbrella returns with a multi-disciplinary day curated for movement, reflection and a hope for the future of dance.
Curated by Anthea Lewis, we can expect to be treated to “the history and evolution of Black British social dance and music cultures.”
For Lewis, working with Dance Umbrella is always a pleasure, “I've been involved, whether it's presenting wise or behind the scenes. I've been doing a lot of activity with them for the last seven years, especially since Freddie [Opoku-Addaie] has been the Artistic Director.”
Lewis talks about how Dance Umbrella has supported her across various points of her career and how this moment is just another example of the organisation continuing to bring creatives together in a tangible way.
For Lewis this programme is a chance to engage professional artists with a significant budget to support them across the day of programming instead of having to “rely on favours.”
A mixture of free events and paid for sessions, the programme, ‘Touch the Floor’ will take over Rich Mix, a creative venue in East London for a single day.
On the decision-making process around who would become a part of her programme, Lewis explains how her existing relationship with Dance Umbrella meant she, “had a lot of space and trust to kind of explore what I was interested in and what I wanted to delve into.”
She also had the full support of the team in understanding some parts of festival programming she’d never been privy to before.
Being early in the process meant that the role of ‘guest curator’ had no real defined parameters, initially. Lewis explains how upon her appointment the budget wasn’t fully nailed down but as it took shape she realised she could expand her horizons.
“As a freelance artist working with an organisation that has some budget already, it allowed me to be able to think about who would be useful to bring in and different skills of people that maybe I wouldn't be able to engage with, but a lot of them are just people that I've been following over the years, and that I know like there's an alignment in kind of the work we're doing or the way we're looking at things, or they're challenging my perspective or offering a new insight.”
The final line-up features creatives from various disciplines.
Cultural Producers. Music Producers. Theatre Makers. Choreographers. DJs. Archivists.
For Lewis it was a time that encompassed movement within her own body, “I don't even know if I knew I needed to just release that energy and shake my body out.”
Lewis joined in on some of the workshops that her artists were presenting to the public and firmly believes that the majority of people craved a “collective dance” experience and that they no longer just wanted to be spectators or “watch the professionals dance.”
She also believes that although the programme has lots of elements which are focused on archival histories, it’s also about looking towards the future.
“So it's not just about you know dusting off an old photo album from years ago and taking a trip down memory lane, which has been beautiful to do as well. I want people to feel like they're doing like it's a collective conversation rather than like a younger generation talking about the good old days, and so it's been really nice.”
The point is to ensure that we’re all part of the dialogue and to ensure that young people aren’t left behind. Lewis has been interviewing her young nephews and their friends about how their communities are being shaped and the ways in which they engage in the dance industry and beyond.
“It’s really shifted to like these kinds of singular worlds in a virtual space, and I think that would be really lovely to delve further from and explore. Is there still capacity for IRL human interaction, contact and what that offers? Because a lot of them find it very overwhelming,” Lewis summarises on shaping young people is so important.
This weekend is only the beginning.
Touch The Floor runs at Rich Mix on Saturday 24 October. Book Here
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